The Good Samaritan

Lucy is an orphan, Vincent is a vampire. It's hard to say who has it worse.

Lucy was absorbed, counting the ways to stay out a little longer. She was already taking the long way home, had stopped to pet the Johnson’s Labrador. Now she was headed to the library, the only safe place in the world as far as Lucy was concerned. She had a routine, she would go inside, skim the young adult section, get a sip of water, read the back of anything that looked like it might have vampires or werewolves or zombies or witchcraft, get another sip of water and check out just before they closed. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by a groan coming from a nearby bush. She stopped. There it was again, louder. It wasn’t human. No, Lucy knew that sound, she knew it from every zombie movie she had ever seen. That was the groan of the hideous undead. The infection had already begun. 

Suddenly the groaning stopped. It was coming in for the kill. No place to run, no way to defend herself, she closed her eyes and let it descend.

“Little girl.” Its voice was small and weak. Lucy’s eyes snapped open, she squinted at the bush from which the raspy sound was coming. “Come here, little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl. I’m fourteen.” She told the bush, but didn’t move. 

The bush groaned again. “Please, help me. . . I. . . I fell.” 

Lucy stepped closer. The bush shifted and she peered inside. It wasn’t a zombie, no, it was very much human. A man, about thirty, no rotting flesh at all, handsome, although his eyebrows were a little too thick for his face and his nose had a bump in it like it had been broken once. He opened his eyes when she came closer. They were thin, mossy green, almost luminous. She stopped dead in her tracks. He lunged at her, but a beam of sunlight fell across his outstretched hands and he flinched and recoiled. Lucy watched with wide eyes as smoke rose from his skin. She should have run, she knew she should have turned and run all the way back to the orphanage and never looked back. But she couldn’t move, she remained there, trapped by some perverse fixation. Obviously he was in no position to attack her again anyway, he sat, wincing from the pain as she looked down at him. 

“Are you okay?” She asked finally. 

He glared at her. “You’re not going to run?” Sharp white teeth peaked between his lips as he spoke. 

Lucy shook her head.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“I dunno, kinda’.” She shrugged. 

“You know that if you stepped to the right a quarter inch and covered that ray of light I would seize you and devour you without a moment’s hesitation.”

There was a pause, but Lucy nodded once again. 

He sighed. “Teenagers these days are so stupid.”

“Well you’re not so bright either, or you’d be nice to me so I would help you.”

He looked at her, green eyes searching her face. “You wouldn’t help me.” 

“Try me.” She said. 

“It would mean your life.” He looked at her, steady, grave. 

She shrugged.

He rolled his eyes. “Stupid and suicidal.”

“Or I could just leave you here to die.” She said, pointedly raising her eyebrows above the black, plastic frames of her glasses. 

Again that searching gaze. “Just leave.” He said, turning away dismissively. 

“Now who’s suicidal.” 

He looked at her again. “You’re a very strange girl.” 

“I’m an orphan.” She shrugged. 

He raised his unusually thick eyebrows. “From Saint John’s?”

Lucy nodded. 

“Kind of old for an orphan, huh?” He asked, tactless in his pain and hunger. 

“Prospective parents say I’m not cheerful enough.” Lucy explained, although that was only half the story. Hank and Jenny wanted a blonde. Theodore and Sally wanted someone a little younger. Tom and Julia had been totally sold until they asked her what book she was reading. The answer had launched her into a thirty minute lecture about the best way to survive a zombie invasion, the best way to kill a zombie, whether or not zombies could run, etc. 

“I see. What are you doing here then?”

“I was on the way home from school.” She explained. 

There was a pause. “And you’d really help me?”

“Sure.” She shrugged and the wind blew her hair across her face. 

“And you know what that means?” He looked at her again, eyebrows drawn down with severity.

She nodded. “Sure, you’re a vampire, you feed on my blood, regain your strength and I’m transformed into a loathsome, blood-hungry creature of the night.”

A car drove past, stirring the air. 

He shook his head, grinning and squinting through a different gap in the foliage near her feet. “Loathsome? That hardly seems necessary.” He glanced back toward her face, resuming his serious tone. “If I take too much, though, you could die.”

Lucy shrugged again. “What do I have to live for?”

“I wouldn’t know. Come here.”

Lucy stepped off the sidewalk and into the bushes. She had finally found a way to stay out longer. 

Author's Note

Uhhm, I started writing this in eighth grade, and recently found it and decided to reformat it to my liking. it changed A LOT. my goal in redoing it was to write something with vampires that has a modern, realistic edge, I tried to eliminate the cheesy, stupid things that eighth graders write about, but there may be some left over, feel free to call me out on it.

Reviews

[Viccy Rogers]

This is really quirky and unique - well done! To improve I think you could add more description, like similes and metaphors to provide the reader with a more vivid image of what is going on. This would make the writing seem more advanced and overall better quality. Apart from this, the storyline is really interesting and you've done a great job adapting it:) your use of speech is affective and you've used a wide range of vocabulary which adds an element of complexity. I enjoyed reading it, good start!

[Elle Thompson]

Thank you for your feedback, I will think about your suggestions the next time I work on this piece. =)